Songs for Thanksgiving

There is a soundtrack for gratitude and holiness and family and love and all of life. This November, amid the hustle and bustle and last-minute pumpkin pies, don't forget the music. Songs bring people together. They are essential to the holiday spirit.

When you wake up Thanksgiving morning, it should be like a gospel song with Give Thanks in the title, waxing blissful through improvisations on the theme.

As you set to the work of preparing the Thanksgiving meal, fun songs can keep the mood light. There is of course The Turkey Song by Adam Sandler, and other songs celebrating food, such as Food Glorious Food from Oliver!, Be Our Guest from Beauty & the Beast, Maximum Consumption by the Kinks, and I Like Food by the Descendants. Weird Al is always good for a laugh, such as his Michael Jackson spoof Eat It! or his Cindy Lauper Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch.

Songs about where food comes from are also nice. Inch by Inch (The Garden Song) by David Mallet comes to mind, and there are many artists' versions to choose from. From a more industrial point of view, there is Millions of Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America.

Throughout the day many pop songs called Thank You may come to mind, with varying degrees of relevance to the holiday. There's Thank You by Dido, Thank You by ZZ Top, Thank You by Led Zeppelin, Thank You by Natalie Merchant, Thank You by Alanis Morissette...

When it is time to go to grandmother's house, or wherever the family meal is to be held, there are various versions of Over the River and Through the Woods with a Thanksgiving theme. If you've never heard one, make up your own!

Tom Chapin has an album called So Nice to Come Home, and his song Hunger & Thirst reminds me of Thanksgiving. Any song by Bob Dylan might also fit the theme. (His face does somewhat resemble a very handsome turkey.) His song Saved is especially appropriate. Later you could play his One More Cup of Coffee duet with Joan Baez.

It's time to say grace. Thank You Lord by Bob Marley. Why Me Lord by Kris Kristoferson. Joni Mitchell's Banquet brings the rest of the world into perspective with lyrics, Some get the gravy and some get the gristle, some get the marrow bone and some get nothing, though there's plenty to spare...

After the meal, it's time to relax with Native American music, time to honor the culture that taught the pilgrims how to survive on this land. I like Robert Tree Cody and Verdell Pimeaux and Brenda MacIntyre. Flute songs or story-tellers can lull the little ones to sleep.

And in another room or outside, a fiddler might strike up a dance. Turkey in the Straw.